The Arizona sentinel., 1887-02-12

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 In times when signs were ill general use by all tradesmen, it was only natur- al that each man should endeavor to Out-do his neighbors in the obtrusive- ness of his signboard. Those firms who advertise on street hoardings do precisely the same kind of thing at the present day; each endeavors, by means of brilliancy of color or novelty of de- sign, to obtain, through his posters, greater publicity for the wares he deals in, and to attract more attention than his neighbors- Just so, a century or more ago, many ingenious devices were made use of to force into notice the signboards of those days. Some of the boards were made of enormous size; others were painted in far ing colors; others bore strik- ing or amusing objects, likely to be remembered by those who saw them; while others projected far out into the street, or suspended within elaborate, and often really ornamental, frame works of iron. When each tradesman thus endeavored to eclipse the sign boards of his neighbors, it may well be imagined that inconvenience was caused to the. general public. Complaints that the. size. and prominence of the sign boards prevented the access of sunlight and the free circulation of the air in the narrow London streets first began to be heard, we are told, as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century, when an order was made to abate the nuisance. In the course of time, how ever, the evil grew again, till Charles IL, in 1867, directed that no sign boards were thereafter to hang across the streets, but that they were to be fixed against the sides of the houses. Again, however, as years passed by, the nuisance ereappeared. In 1762, large powers were once more granted, and there was a general and final clearing away of the too obtrusive sign boards. Old prints and engravings of the last century often give a good idea of the way in which the public streets, both of London and other towns, were once disfgured by these overgrown ,sign-boards.
 This general demolition in 1762 gave a blow to the use of signboards from which those evidences of past igno- rance have never since recovered. But had the conditions which first brought them into existence remained the same, there can be no doubt that the sign boards would have again risen, phenix- like, from their own ruins. Hap oily those conditions have not re- mained the same. That knowledge of reading and writing which during the present century has become wide spread among all classes, has, it may be truly said, given a death-blow to the universal use of signs and to the art of the sign-painter. This, to be sure, is not a matter to call for regret on its own account; nev- theless, the great decline in the use of the old-fashioned pictorial signboards is to be regretted for many reasons. The signs our forefathers used have as already pointed out-largely inter- woven themselves with our history. In losing them, we are losing one of the well-known landmarks of the past. The signs of the Woolpack and the Golden Fleece, for instance, which are still common in the Eastern counties, are mementos of the time when the woolen trade fiourished in that part of England. The sign of the Coach and Horses, still a very frequent sign every where, calls to mind the old coaching days. Our numerous Arms, our many Lions, Bulls, Dragons. Bears and Horses-red, blue, black, green or white-and divers other strangely col ored animals, most of which are quite unknown to men of science, are all relics of medieval times, when heraldry was cherished and understood by every one. Many similar instances might be pointed out, did space permit. Most of the signboards now displayed by our inns and taverns bear strong evidence of their own degradation from the high | position they once occupied. Inasmuch as they now usually bear the name of the house in written characters, they l show most clearly how entirely forgot ten are the reasons which originally | led to the adoption of the use of sIgns. Only now and then do we see pie torial signboard of the real old-fash- toned sort.
 This decay in the use of inn-signs, however, is no greater than the decline in importance of the inns themselves. | These have, within little more than the | last half-century, descended from a ]